Editing Albemarle, North Carolina (section)

===Economic history===
The Albemarle region's early economic growth was fueled by agriculture (with cotton as the primary crop), regional mercantile trade and a short-lived gold rush in the nearby [[Uwharrie Mountains]], all later supplanted by textile manufacturing. The Efird Manufacturing Co. (later American and Efird Mills) opened its first mill in Albemarle in 1896, and was followed soon thereafter by the Wiscasset Mill Company, the Cannon Mill Company, the Lillian Knitting Mill and others. In 1899, Wiscassett Mills Company established Cabarrus Bank and Trust, the first bank in Albemarle. By 1910, an electrical distribution plan for the city was underway.

The Yadkin Railroad began rail service to Albemarle from [[Salisbury, North Carolina|Salisbury]] in 1891. In 1911, the Winston-Salem Southbound Railway (WSS) constructed its own line through Albemarle to support the booming textile and market, eventually driving the Yadkin Railroad into obsolescence.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ncrailways.net/companies/WSS.htm |title=Winston-Salem Southbound Railway |access-date=March 20, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060713073231/http://www.ncrailways.net/companies/WSS.htm |archive-date=July 13, 2006 }}</ref> The WSS still provides freight service through Albemarle, but since 1933 there has been no passenger service to the city. The Old Market Street Station on the WSS line has been restored, and is now the site of a popular farmer's market. The railbed of the Yadkin Railroad has been ripped up and paved over, though a one-mile (1.6&nbsp;km) segment of its route south of Albemarle now serves as a hiking trail in Rock Creek Park.

In 1923, a state contract was let to construct [[North Carolina State Highway 24|NC-24/27]] to [[Charlotte, North Carolina|Charlotte]], the first paved highway out of Albemarle. In 1950, Stanly County Memorial Hospital opened on land donated by Wiscassett Mills.

Albemarle got its first indoor shopping center in 1966, known as [[Quenby Mall]], and would later be converted to house governmental services in 1993.

In 2024, a new cryptocurrency was developed in Albemarle as part of a fundraiser to save the local restaurant "Jay's Seafood", which had been damaged in a fire.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Erage |first=Lev |date=7 March 2024 |title=New cryptocurrency developed in Albemarle, NC |url=https://x.com/levlevleverage/status/1765528673531146429 }}</ref>